Redlands 125th Anniversary: Redlands quasquicentennial video history

REDLANDS - This is the first interview we filmed. I'm always nervous, but was especially uncomfortable in front of the camera this first go-round.

Larry Munz's father, Martin, came here in 1950 as the principal of Redlands Junior High School, which is now North Campus of Redlands High School. The RHS administration building is called the Martin H. Munz Administration Building.

He was principal at RHS from 1966 to 1972.

"He loved helping teachers become better teachers," Larry Munz said.

The shop building on campus is named after Larry's wife's grandfather, Clarence Hardy.

On the video, Munz points to parts of the high school and talks about the way it used to be.

"There's not much left of the old campus, really," he says.

He brings up names of many people who were involved in the school when he attended, and later when he became an industrial arts teacher.

He taught at Cope Junior High in the 1960s before moving to the Regional Occupational Program, and was ultimately the superintendent of the Colton-Redlands-Yucaipa ROP.

After a stint as a general contractor, he taught at RHS, but not while his father was principal.

He says his dad was "fair, firm and friendly." He describes himself as "firm and probably fair."

Munz describes seeing the Sylvan Plunge for the first time in 1950. He said that when he was a student he was a swimmer, but there was no campus pool, so the RHS swimmers practiced at the YMCA and the University of Redlands.

He later became the first coach of the Redlands Swim Team - then called the Redlands Swim Club Barracudas. He describes the early days, the challenges the team faced, and the successes the club has seen.

Munz's son and daughter-in-law are Hometown Heroes, serving in the military and being celebrated by the city with banners on Cajon Street. His daughter is a labor and delivery nurse at Redlands Community Hospital. Her father-in-law is a longtime RHS coach.

Like his father, Munz is a Kiwanian. He's also on the board of the Redlands Scholarship Foundation, and the vice president of the board of trustees for the Kimberly Crest. He was chairman of the Redlands Historic and Scenic Preservation Commission in the 1970s when it was first implementing the ordinance for historic preservation, which he describes on the video.